Curling a family thing for hall of famer Bell
Alice Bell decided to take up curling with her husband in 1962.
Fifty-five years later, Bell was inducted into the Essex County Sports Hall of Fame and recognized as a pioneer for women’s curling in the area — as both a player and a teacher of the game.
Bell, who first started curling when she joined her husband Bob at the Windsor Curling Club, was one of eight local athletes inducted into the local Hall of Fame recently.
“They were looking for new members so we joined and my husband went off and curled and I went off and watched,” Bell, now 84, said during a recent curling season kickoff at Roseland.
“The (Windsor Curling) club was worried because they had 40 women to teach and there was no way they could accommodate us. They warned us it was very dangerous to go on the ice. Well, danger, and here we are.”
Tedd Szalay of the Windsor Curling Club Senior Association nominated Bell for the Hall of Fame. He said her years of curling and teaching the sport deserve recognition. But he is also hoping that a curler inducted into the Hall of Fame will give the sport a boost.
At its high point, the club — celebrating its 140th anniversary this year — had more than 700 curlers. Today, that number has dropped with a membership at only 80 curlers.
Szalay attributes the drop to the fact that its membership — primarily retirees — is getting older.
“We’ve not been able to infuse any younger players into curling,” he said. “I’ve been promoting it and trying to get people interested in curling. We are hoping to bring the numbers back up but it is a struggle. We just need more exposure.”
Bell’s daughter, Susan Yester, has curled for close to 50 years and can’t help but smile when asked how it all started.
“It wasn’t really a choice,” said Yester, 60. “My parents curled so we just automatically curled when we turned 12.
“Every Saturday morning, the kids headed to the Windsor Curling Club along with their parents and spent hours on and off the ice curling and socializing. That’s just how it was — if your parents curled, then so did you.”